forspecial_plate

Better Botanicals lip balm has a great vetiver lip balm. It was the first time I smelled vetiver so that's what I always think of. Now their lip balms are too strong for me a lot of the time (the scent, that is)...can't have anything overpowering my Black Phoenix! I still like them sometimes, though. To my nose, Djinn has a strong presence of vetiver. And I'll agree with Azathoth.

I really wanted to love this, and I almost do. It's a very sweet, smokey, and sultry blend. Not sure what's giving me powder but something is on the border of too much powder for me. It might be ginger, or maybe the eastern flowers. I think I'm going to hold onto my imp and keep trying it...I might be in the right mood to wear it every once in a while. It's kind of a dusty sweet scent, but sexy and warm. Kind of appropriate for autumn.

Another great incense blend. From memory I'm thinking this smells very similar to Midnight Mass. Strong, resin and incense. This seems to have a touch more wood in it, but nothing like Cathedral which has a strong wood note. And Penitence does have a black-peppery kind of note, I noticed. So yeah, if you like frankincense and myrrh this would be right up your alley. And if you like Midnight Mass you would almost surely like this. On the other hand, I can't imagine needing both, since they smell so much alike. edit: Just out of curiosity, I tested this on one arm and Midnight Mass on the other, to compare. They are *slightly* different. Penitence has some kind of spicy, higher pitched note that I can't identify (maybe amber?). So yeah, there is actually a difference. I would call Midnight Mass a little 'darker', if I had to make a distinction.

This scent is warm, sweet and cheering to me. I honestly wasn't very hopeful because of the wine grapes...usually the bpal wine/grape note doesn't agree with my skin at all. The frankincense and myrrh drew me in, however. I like the combination here. Olympia301 remarked that this smells like raisins, and I agree....I really don't get a grape smell so much as a warm raisin-y smell. I agree that Haloa has parallels to Eat Me, and to a lesser extent All Souls. It's closer to Eat Me in my opinion, to me they're both more on the warm and sultry side. The resin mixes really well with the sweetness, and seems to add a little buttery golden feel to the scent. Not much more to add...I think I may be burning myself out on food scents, because even though I like this, I don't think I'll get a whole bottle of it. I just don't wear them out and about enough to justify a whole bottle. I'll probably keep my decant, though. PS, I ended up loving this

I'll add Sea of Glass....more wet than floral but there is some kind of water lily or flower in there....very clear, green, peaceful scent. It's kind of like a lighter, sweeter Bayou.

In my opinion, the pumpkin scents actually smell more like pumpkin pie spice, which is clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, etc....than actual pumpkin. Jack smells very buttery at first, but the butter fades and it's sweet and spicy after that...and unfortunately, turns a little dusty on my skin. But it's a general catalogue scent and therefore available to buy a sample vial of it, which might work out well for you. If you're feeling braver, I recommend Pumpkin Queen, which is a limited edition available only for the rest of this month (3 more days?). It's similar to Jack with the addition of some scrumptious notes like Egyptian amber, ginger, and I forget what else. It was a bit sweet for me but worked better than Jack did. I bought it for my mom for Christmas and I really hope she likes it! There is also the whole Pumpkin Patch available as a set, also LE, if you REALLY want to dive right in. I haven't tried any of them, but they don't seem difficult to find in the swap/sales forum. You can read reviews of all of them and see if any sound interesting to you. Anyway, hope that helps some!

Burial smells very moist and earthy to me. That's the only one I can think of. Demeter has some dirt smells....well, one is actually called Dirt. See also Earthworm and Wet Garden (if you want to stretch and try something non-bpal, that is...).

Musky, herbal and bitter, kind of gritty...reminds me of the red musk in Kabuki, Fenris Wolf, and even Mme. Moriarty, a little bit. Not sure I can smell any myrrh but sometimes that plays hide-and-go-seek on my skin. Earthy, dark blend that I can see being in the mood for every now and then. Edit: I tucked this away and tried it again, about 8 months later. That much aging has made a big difference in this scent. It smoothed out a lot, and the 'grittiness' that I detected earlier is now gone. Now it's very musky and smooth, a little tart, still very long lasting and strong. Still a dark scent but now there's something almost fruity about it. I like it a lot more now!

Caliban is ocean with a crushed-stems green scent, and the barest hint of wine. No smoke though, and no fruits/apples. Maybe Samhain layered with Caliban? Can't imagine what that would smell like, though... edit: I think that Kingsport has more of a misty, rustic feel...it's another ocean blend, however without the other notes you're looking for. It's also rather hard to get a hold of.

Hmmm... *scratches head* ....skin chemistry can be a crazy thing. When I put on Sol Invictus, it is very soft and faint. I can smell a golden and sunny citrus, a nice smell, but so subtle....I was thinking, maybe this would bloom on my skin and gain power, kind of like Aureus does on me. No such luck!! After a few minutes, I almost can't find where I applied it! It turned a little powdery, then disappeared almost completely. I will try again, if there are any changes I will amend my review. For now I'll just say it reminded me of Jacob's Ladder only much softer.

I'm getting chilly aquatic, too....Black Ice reminds me of a lighter, colder relative of Kingsport. And just like Kingsport, the cologne-y aquatic note disappears really fast! That's where the 2 scents diverge. What's left is barely any throw, and up close there's a little bit of dusty herbal bitterness...not a bad smell, just not very strong on me. It's my skin's usual disappearing act with aquatics....they go *poof* and they're mostly gone! This was totally different from what I was expecting. More smooth and 'accessible' if anyone knows what I mean by that. It's a great scent, just doesn't work out for me.

Complete revision of my review, because I was annoyed by my old review...... This starts out herbal/sharp, not what I was expecting, with the woods backing it up. Later it dries to a fruity sweetness, but still herbal, almost medicinal, almost cold. This seems to be a distant relative of Samhainophobia. There is an incense-like vibe that comes out more strongly as the scent warms on the skin. The first few times I tried this, I wasn't crazy about it. I think it's a common thing for me: I tried so hard to dissect it and pick out notes, that I didn't let myself just enjoy the scent as a whole. When I finally gave up dissecting it, I found that I actually enjoyed it! I knew by reading the notes that it was worth another try, and I was right.

Starts out very golden and somewhat powdery, and I can't pick out any single notes at all. I'm not crazy about amber but tried Jacob's Ladder in the spirit of 'maybe this will be an exception'. After about an hour the amber does come out stronger, and reminds me a lot of The Lion....reminding me that I didn't like The Lion. For me, amber is a little powdery and has a weird hint of halitosis, and that shows up here. It's only there when I sniff up close, though. Anyway...hours later, Jacob's Ladder fades back closer to how it started....but this time without so much powder. At this point it's something that I could wear, but I'm not excited about waiting through the other stages to get here.

Cotton candy is the strongest impression, then coconut for some reason, very sugary and sweet....with something not as sweet lurking underneath. But there's more than sweetness in Midway....and I really can't explain it any more than that. It's an interesting scent that almost tells a story, and I may wear it again just for the experience. I don't think I would wear it on a regular basis, though. I do like Midnight on the Midway a lot better.

Has no-one mentioned Snake Oil? I remember Scherezade reminding me of Snake Oil, Blood Kiss, and Kabuki. Also reminded me of incense, but that opens up a whole can of worms. Are you open to foody scents at all? All Souls might be worth a try. It reminds me of a spicy floral incense with....cake. It works a lot better than it sounds. It seems to me to be more incense/smokey than foody, though. Seems like there are many many options for you....have fun in your search!

I didn't get very far with this one. Smelled promising at first, soapy, but not in a bad way...kind of sharp and spicy/sweet. Very shortly after applying, a strong powder note emerged and smushed everything else under the carpet. I think it's rosewood that's doing this to me because King of Hearts did the same thing. So disappointing!

Spooky turned plastic-y on me. Obatala did not. In Creepy, I didn't smell much coconut. I think Obatala might be your answer. In my review I think I called it the perfect coconut scent. : )

How in the world these notes work together I do not know, but they do....mish-mash is a good word to describe Jolasveinar...but not in a bad way. I smell a lot of greenery, moss and flowers, and a fir like smell, and I wonder if I would have thought 'holiday scent' if I didn't already know it was one? It seems like very much a holiday scent, anyway. I also smell the snow or slush, and the dirt, and also the spicy sweetness of the pilfered pastries.....it's all there, and it smells wonderful. Might be my favorite of the Yule scents.

This smelled sweet and spicy to me, really pleasant. I can smell the dragon's blood resin, spices, and maybe some faint woods. Then, as with most of the lab's scents that contain dragon's blood, this disappears almost completely within an hour or so. All that's left is a faint ghost of the sweet and spicy scent that I started with, and maybe just a little wine. I guess my skin eats up dragon's blood. On the plus side the juniper didn't bother me like it often does. But this doesn't last long enough to be worth keeping.

In the vial this is very buttery, slightly spicy. Once it hits my skin the butter disappears completely and it's all pumpkin spices. Never did smell any peach. After some time passes Jack takes on a dusty feel that I don't really like. I wanted to like Jack but it's not meant to be!

Nice, sweet and spicy at first, with a gentle wood note flitting about. Then not 3 minutes later my skin turns it straight to strong powder. This doesn't work for me at all. : (

Eek...my skin really did a number on Grand Guignol....turns it into a latex smell that's not pleasant at all. Occasionally there is a brief flash of apricot, but mosly it's just yucky latex. No way did this work for me. : (

For a while I thought that nag champa and champaca were the same thing...but they're not. From wikipedia: "Nag Champa is a fragrance from India. The scent is reported to be very conducive to helping to achieve a calm and meditative state. It has a high concentration of sandalwood. It is most frequently found in the form of incense sticks and cones, but soap, perfume oil, scented candles, and massage oil are also available. Nag Champa belongs to the "Champa" class of Indian incense. Champa is actually a flower. Champa incenses contain a natural ingredient indigenous to India called "halmaddi". Halmaddi is a semi-liquid resin taken from the Ailanthus Malabarica tree. It is what gives Nag Champa its characteristic grey color. Halmaddi is hygroscopic which means it absorbs moisture from the air. This can cause Nag Champa incenses to have a wet feeling to them" Champaca, however, is from the magnolia family. More info: from wikipedia, and Pacifica candles' take on the scent. I'm posting this in case anyone else had any confusion about the two. Specifically I'm thinking of Dr. John Seward, which has champaca flower, but also sandalwood, opium smoke, etc....it's more floral than incensey to me (but I still love it).

I still can't tell many flowers apart....but Bayou starts out reminding me of strong, sweet jasmine. Or maybe gardenia...some floral anyway, with a very tart lemon-like note behind it. Very interesting. After a while the flowers back off and it becomes aquatic, with the tartness still in there. The lemon aspect sort of changes but it's still something tart in there. It's very strong, with a lot of throw. It reminds me a lot of a heavier, darker Sea of Glass (which is a scent that I love). I'm not sure I ever got any moss, evergreen, or cypress...but maybe those are contributing to the tartness. I can't really decide if I would wear Bayou...it might be appropriate for a hot and humid day. But if I had to choose I would pick Sea of Glass over Bayou, probably.

Snow-Flakes starts off as a soft, 'white', pretty floral, reminding me of violets, but not powdery like violets usually are on me. As time goes by the scent changes...it still smells floral, but it starts reminding me of Dirty. So maybe the two scents share a common floral note, or maybe not. But I did keep thinking of Dirty when I smelled it. Snow-Flakes, for such a soft and pretty scent, has strong throw and lasts a long time. I can't remember if I smelled mint, but the overall impression is clean, soft, and cold, like softly falling heavy snow. It's pretty, but sadly just not something that agrees with me. I will most likely give it to my sister or swap it.